Non-Stop
Non-Stop is a 2014 French–American mystery-thriller film starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery, Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o and Scoot McNairy and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. This is the first Silver Pictures film to be distributed by Universal Pictures after the end of the production company's deal with Warner Bros. Pictures. Plot Bill Marks is an alcoholic Irish-American U.S. federal air marshal; his daughter died at age eight from leukemia cancer, his wife divorced him, and he enrolled in the Air Marshal service, despite a fear of airplane takeoffs, after he was discharged from the police force. On a non-stop flight from New York to London aboard British Aqualantic Flight 10, Jen Summers sits next to Marks after switching seats with cellphone programmer Zack White, who has already had several run-ins at the airport with Marks. Midway over the Atlantic Ocean, Marks receives text messages on his secure phone stating that someone on the plane will die every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred into a specific bank account. Breaking protocol, Marks consults with Jack Hammond, the other air marshal on the flight. Hammond is revealed to be smuggling cocaine in a briefcase and Marks ends up killing him in a lavatory following an altercation; this occurs exactly at the 20 minute mark, resulting in the first death. As Marks attempts to stall for time with the texter, he works with the flight crew and Summers to discover the texter's identity. When 20 minutes runs out again, Captain David McMillan suddenly dies of poisoning. The public becomes convinced that Marks is hijacking the plane, as the bank account is in his name and a passenger uploads video footage of him treating passengers aggressively with no explanation. Co-pilot Kyle Rice has been instructed by TSA to ignore Marks and land in Iceland, the closest destination; he diverts the plane but continues to cautiously trust Marks. Marks has White design a hack which will cause the texter's cell phone to ring. Ringing the phone, he discovers it in the pocket of a passenger, who claims to have never seen the cell phone before. Following a fight with Marks, the passenger dies in a similar fashion to the pilot. Stressed, Bill takes a break to again smoke in the lavatory, Marks finds a hole in the wall that allowed someone to shoot a poison dart at the captain; he finds that the most recently deceased passenger was struck with a dart as well. While Marks and Summers try to gain access to the texter's cell phone, it suddenly activates, sending automated messages to TSA implying that Marks is suicidal and is going to detonate a bomb on the plane. Marks finds the bomb hidden in the cocaine smuggled by Hammond and deduces that the bomber is on a suicide mission. Unable to land the plane in time, he attempts to initiate a protocol of least damage: by bringing the plane to 8,000 feet to equalize air pressure, placing the bomb in the rear of the plane, covering it with baggage and moving the passengers to the front in order to contain the explosion and minimize casualties. As he begins to initiate these actions, some of the passengers attempt to disable Marks, convinced by the media that he is a terrorist. Marks finally explains the situation to them and they agree to work with him. Watching a video clip of himself handling passengers, Marks notices passenger Tom Bowen – whom he had initially cleared of any suspicion – slipping the texter's phone into the pocket of the second poison victim. Realizing that Bowen is the culprit, Marks engages him in a fight, and by then it was revealed that Bowen and White were soldiers appalled by the lack of security at U.S. airports before 9/11, hoping that framing Marks as a terrorist will lead to drastically increased security before an actual terrorist attack can happen again. Bowen is prepared to die with the plane and shoots White, who expected to get off the plane with the money. Bowen gets into a gunfight with Marks but Rice plunges the plane into a rapid descent. While in free-fall, the plane encounters a brief period of microgravity, stunning Bowen and allowing Marks' pistol to fly into his hand, which he uses to shoot and kill Bowen. The plane reaches 8,000 feet as White recovers and attacks Marks with a knife, but the bomb explodes, causing severe cabin decompression and killing White in the explosion as Marks retreats to the front of the plane. Rice manages an emergency crash-landing at a military base in Iceland after the bomb explodes, disregarding orders from his fighter plane escort; the plane is practically destroyed in the landing but there are no casualties. Marks is hailed as a hero in the media, and the film ends with him and Summers beginning their friendship, showing that Marks is beginning to recover from the loss of his daughter. Cast *Liam Neeson as Bill Marks *Julianne Moore as Jen Summers *Scoot McNairy as Tom Bowen *Nate Parker as Zack White *Michelle Dockery as Nancy Hoffman *Linus Roache as Captain David McMillan *Corey Stoll as Austin Reilly *Lupita Nyong'o as Gwen Lloyd *Anson Mount as Jack Hammond *Omar Metwally as Dr. Fahim Nasir *Jason Butler Harner as Kyle Rice *Corey Hawkins as Travis Mitchell *Frank Deal as Charles Wheeler *Shea Whigham as Agent Marenick *Bar Paly as Iris Marianne Reception Non-Stop is one of the few Die Hard Scenario films to recieve largely mixed to positive reviews. On film aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 60% rating, with an average critics score of 5.8/10, based on reviews from 183 critics. The site's consensus states: "While Liam Neeson is undoubtedly an asset, Non-Stop wastes its cast — not to mention its solid premise and tense setup — on a poorly conceived story that hinges on a thoroughly unbelievable final act." On another aggregation website, Metacritic, it holds a 56/100 score (indicating "mixed or average reviews"), based on reviews from 40 critics. External Links * *Non-Stop at Wikipedia Category:Films Category:Die Hard on a Plane scenario movies Category:Die Hard on a Moving Vehicle scenario movies Category:PG-13 rated films Category:Die Hard scenario films with Mystery/Thriller elements Category:Liam Neeson action films Category:Die Hard scenario films with cyber terrorists and hackers Category:Die Hard scenarios set in London Category:Die Hard scenarios set in New York Category:Films involving a framed protagonist Category:Films using the Real Time aspect Category:2010 era releases Category:Martial Arts action entertainment Category:Julianne Moore action films Category:Films influenced by the style of Taken Category:Die Hard scenario films with U.S. marshal characters Category:Joel Silver film productions Category:Jaume Collet-Serra film productions Category:2014 Category:Die Hard scenarios set in Washington, D.C.